B6 Terrace Review — Wednesday, January 2, 1991 ~ Former B.C. enviro called to acc _ Province still mute on status of hearings Tt is still not known whether there will be public hearings on the environmental and social impacts of Alcan’s giant Kemano completion project. Former B.C environment minister John Rey- nolds has now been summoned to appear before a House of Com- mons special committee to explain remarks he made to them in con- nection with the Alcan hydroeiec- tric project in November, but Rey- nolds’s successor has not made it clear if Reynolds committed the B.C. government to public hear- ings. Reynolds had told the committee — which is doing a pre-study of Bill C-78, legislation that would affect the Federal Environmental Assessment Process — in three separate statements while testifying before them that public hearings will be conducted on the impact of Kemano Completion, now into its second year of work, He later claimed that his remarks had been misinterpreted, saying he actually meant there would be public infor- mation meetings, not hearings. Hearings would be an official process the results of which could be used to compel Alcan to alter the project for environmental or social reasons. Skeena MP Jim Fulton is a mem- ber of the parliamentary commit- tee, and he believes Reynolds has made a commitment. Fulton has been in favour of a full public hearing process for Kemano i from the beginning, and he said in ‘Where To Find ount on Keman an interview during December, "That’s what everybody wants. Every candidate who ran for elec- tion here wanted it." Fulton thinks the committee’s credibility could be at stake if the Reynolds situ- ation isn’! straightened out because » it would set a precedent for giving misleading or inaccurate testimony before the committee. The Rivers Defense Coalition, an association of 10 groups opposed to some aspects of the Kemano project, wrote to Reynolds just days before he resigned, asking him to initiate the hearings imme- diately. . The coalition is. centred in the Bulkley Valley and the arca east- ward from Smithers to Vander- hoof, where the environmental effects of Kemano II will be felt most strongly. Due to the addi- tional flow of water going into the Kemano powerhouse, there will be less water available for release into the Nechako River through the Kenney Dam. Water levels in the Nechako will drop substantially, and downstream the Fraser River will be affected as well. In its preliminary environmental studies and project plans, Alcan identified a series of impacts in the Nechako and planned measures to minimize them. The coalition claims that those measures - are inadequate. Coalition representative Pat Moss said in a statement Dec. 6, "From the minutes of the committee it is clear that Mr. Reynolds was speak- ing about a public hearing. Any- thing less than a hearing with intervenor funding and powers of cross-examination and subpoena would be unacceptable." Reynolds resigned in December, claiming that he no longer had the support of Premier Bill Vander . Zalm after his proposal for reduc- ing maximum organo-chlorine effluent from pulp mills was rejected by Cabinet. Reynolds nment minister Reynolds § ohearingissue & wanted. the effluent limit reduced to 1.5 kilograms per air-dried ton of finished pulp; his successor as environment minister, Cliff Serwa, announced a few days later the limit would be set at 2.5 kilo- grams. As of Dec. 21 the B.C. Ministry of Environment was unable to verify whether the Kemano hear- ings will take place. A public information officer said, “The situation hasn’t been resolved. We're briefing the new minister, and we have no comment." Reynolds has until the end of February to respond to the commit- tee’s summons. Committee chair- man Ross Stevenson was quoted in a Dec. 20 Vancouver Sun story as saying the committee has the right to force Reynolds to appear. The Rivers Defense Coalition’s motion to have federal government approval of the Kemano Comple- tion Project quashed will be heard in a federal court trial in February. Terrace Tree Trimming Will cut down any tree!